It takes about this long…

You know… I am finally getting why children take so long to grow up.  It’s mothers who need about this long to get the hang of the deal.  And then when we get the hang of the deal, we get calls or letters like this:

Well, we finally got here..  the car is actually looking quite well considering all it went through, i guess it wasn’t built to roll…

So praise the Lord I’m just kidding.  We made it here safely with no problems despite the Mount Hood pass being quite icy.

Thank you for all of your prayers!  –tim

So, we need about this much time to laugh at letters like that.

We also need about this long to happily take the grandchildren for a week or more. We get it.  We know that every mom needs a little time to regroup sometimes.  It’s not that the mom can’t handle the load or that she doesn’t desire motherhood or whatever else.  It’s that sometimes a mom just needs to gather her thoughts, to cut and eat her own food, to carry on an uninterrupted fifteen minute conversation, to go potty alone, to wear the same garment – unsoiled – for a whole day… to see sunsets and the sunrise in another place… to have a few minutes to write down some stuff she thinks today she’ll never forget.  But she will forget.  We all do.

It takes about this long to see that need and be very willing to meet it.

It takes about this long to not be so flustered when nothing at all works out right for a whole day.

It takes about this long to not be fearful of so many of the “what if __________ happens” in life. And not so overcome if the _____________’s don’t happen or don’t come along.

So… motherhood.  What an amazing gift.  I wish I’d known sooner what a gift it is and how quickly it goes.